December 6-7 2012 Ocala National Forest, Florida

We camped at Ocala so we could boat some more springs. Very remote place. We started on Juniper spring run. It was overcast in the beginning, not good light for photos, but it burnt off mostly by afternoon.

John locking the bikes up after a bike ride in our campsite. The Juniper springs. You can swim in most of these springs. This pool was built by the CCC.

They also built this mill. It was originally used to make electricity.  Warning about alligators and snakes at the beginning of the spring run. The first 2.5  miles are narrow and winding, scarcely wider than 6 feet. There is also low hanging vegetation, trees  to duck under and submerged trees to avoid.  You paddle through Juniper Prairie wilderness surrounded by lush tropical forest of palms, cypress and  many southern hardwoods. The run is 7 miles long. There are no intermediate access points and it takes about 5 hours.

John putting in. The water is incredibly clear. And pretty shallow at the beginning. Other springs water add to the river. You can see the bottom at all times, fish, turtles swimming under you, your shadow when the sun comes out, it is like floating above the ground in a boat.

John took this of me ducking under a palm tree.  Asters , fall colors and palm trees.

Juniper Prairie wilderness sign. It is getting lost in the wilderness.  Asters around a cypress trunk.

Later the stream widens out and gets deeper. Lots of asters.

It flows around islands, braided streams that you have to choose which one to take and hope you can make it through.

Palms. John surfing on a little rapid. We did not expect to see one of those in here.

The trail widens out  into prairie. Then closes back in to a very narrow run, with fast current , lots of turns, overhanging vegetation and submerged lots to dodge.  You really have to pay attention, almost impossible to take photos with out getting crammed up under a bush, or a tree. Wore me out.

Common primrose willow with a bee in it,  white flower,sunflowers, turtles, aster and red berries, cardinal flower. Amusing sign, church meeting at the VFW?, great blue heron, another turtle.

December 5, 2012 White Springs, Florida

 

The old general store is a museum. Was not open while we were here. An historic home in White Springs. Early 1900’s.

White Sulfur Springs was a big resort with this bath house built around the spring, the spring itself had these 4 balconies around it. A huge flood took out  the bath house . The grand hotels burnt down. This is what is left today. The spring has dried up, probably from lower ground water from dams and irrigating. They changed the name of the town to White Springs

The old historic gas station is now a public library. The natives used to make pine needle baskets out of these long leaf pine needles, the same kind I use now. They only grow in the southeast.

Falling Creek Falls. This is closer to Lake City than White Springs, but close. Falling Creek. The water level is pretty low now, but the pictures show it with a beautiful fall with higher levels.

Falling Creek Church. Built in the 1880’s and still in use. It has separate entrances for men and women.

Falling Creek cemetery. A cotton mouth or water moccasin  snake. I saw it by the bike path when we went riding yesterday. When threatened it opens it’s mouth in warning. The inside of the mouth is white. I was not sure what kind it was, until it did the mouth thing. I backed off.

December 2, 2012 Ichetucknee Spring Run

The streams running from the springs to the larger rivers are called spring runs. The Ichetucknee spring run is fed by about 6 springs. We were able to paddle over a few of the springs, pretty cool to look down into. It is all crystal clear water  over white sand, and  is one of the most pristine examples of a spring run stream in Florida.  It is protected so the sensitive vegetation is alive and is home to lots of wildlife.

John on the Ichetucknee spring run. You can see the white sand and river grasses. Wild flowers near the stream.

Great Blue Heron and three turtles. Lots and lots of turtles and and birds.

The color of the water was incredible. These are cypress tree reflections.

Fall colors reflected. In the second one you can see the grasses below the reflection

John photographing turtles on the shore. The turtles like to lay in the warm sunshine.

John relaxing. We did not need to paddle much, just floated with the current. We did have to watch out for submerged logs though. Here is a big cypress tree.

A pilated woodpecker. This one is about a foot long, they can be up to 18 inches. A great egret. These guys are about 3 feet tall.

John floating by cypress knees. A harmless water snake sunning on a branch.

I had to rent a kayak, they don’t allow inflatables in this part of the stream. In the summer it is full of people on inner tubes, but not in the winter.  It costs half to rent a kayak and have them shuttle both of us than it did for them to shuttle both our own boats. Such a deal. It took us 3 hours to float it, but we stopped a lot and checked out the view.

A couple dragon flies. Blue spring is one of the springs that feed the spring run. You can scuba dive in it  and it has an underground cave system. Florida is made of limestone. It has 600 springs, and millions of underground caves. It is like swiss cheese. Cave diving is a big sport here in Florida.